


Erin Gilbert's Flying Circus

by milliemudd



Category: Ghostbusters (2016), Monty Python's Flying Circus
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 04:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7786459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milliemudd/pseuds/milliemudd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erin and Abby are eating dinner at the station; wacky hijinks ensue.  Eventually Pirate Holtzmann shows up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Erin Gilbert's Flying Circus

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a dream I had that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down to figure out how it ended.
> 
> Flying Circus References: "Exploding Penguin" from S2E9; "The Spanish Inquisition" from S2E2; "The Bruces Sketch" from S2E9
> 
> Special guest appearances from Alex Trebek and my love-hate relationship with MIT (IHTFP).

Abby and Erin were the only ones left at the fire station that evening. Patty had taken off earlier to do some research at the library, and Holtzmann was out dumpster diving for spare parts.

They had decided to order their usual Chinese takeout and eat at the station before going home and crashing. Erin was sitting across from Abby, chewing quietly, lost in her own thoughts, when something caught her eye.

"Hey, what is that on top of the TV?"

Abby turned her head to follow Erin's gaze. The television was droning on the other side of the room, providing background noise, but it had been on all day and she hadn't looked at it once until now. Sure enough, someone had put something there. "Huh. It looks like a penguin."

"What's it doing there?"

Abby shrugged and turned back to her soup. "It's not _doing_ anything I can see."

"You know what I mean. Who put it there?"

Abby shrugged again. "Ask Holtzmann."

"Holtzmann isn't here." Erin put down her chopsticks and walked over for a closer look. As she drew near, Abby called out from behind her, "Burma!"

Erin jumped a foot in the air, then turned around to glare at Abby. "WHAT."

Abby gestured to the TV. Someone was saying, "What is Burma?" Alex Trebek replied, "Correct. Select again."

"Jesus, Abby, you scared me half to death."

"Sorry. I just realized Jeopardy was on." Abby fished another wonton out of her soup. "What kind of penguin is it?"

Erin crouched down to inspect it - working with Holtzmann, she'd learned not to touch anything unusual left lying around, since it had a better than average chance of being dangerous. But this looked like your average plush keepsake, safe enough to pick up. "I think it's a Beanie Baby."

"I meant what breed?"

Erin looked exasperated. "Since when are you a zoologist?"

Abby put aside the container of soup and started digging around for an egg roll. "Don't you remember spring break of freshman year, when my parents took us to the New England Aquarium? They had like 5 different breeds of penguins there. The rockhoppers were my favorite."

"I didn't go." Erin put the stuffed penguin back down and returned to the table. "I was working on my UROP program."

Abby frowned. "That's redundant."

"Sorry?" Erin sat back down and resumed eating.

"UROP stands for Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. Saying UROP program is redundant, like ATM machine."

Erin put down her chopsticks again. "I was writing a software program, so it's a different kind of program than the one in the acronym. It's like MIT technology."

"No one says MIT technology." Abby was grumpy now. She had transferred to a less demanding school after their sophomore year because her obsession with the paranormal had tanked her grades.

"Sure they do, if it's technology that was developed at MIT. Speaking of which, I need to microwave this." Erin grabbed her plate and stood back up. "You need anything while I'm up?"

"Nah." Abby finished her egg roll and began to open a fortune cookie.

Alex Trebek was preparing for Final Jeopardy. "And the category is: Medieval Europe. We'll be back in a moment." A commercial came on for Ghost Jumpers as Erin started the microwave.

Immediately, sparks began to fly inside, and Erin lunged for the button to stop it. "Crap. Abby, you got foil on my plate when you opened the egg rolls."

"Sorry. Hey, remember when we used to microwave old software CDs just to see the sparks fly?"

Erin sighed. "Sure. We did a lot of dumb stuff when we were younger."

"It was all in the spirit of scientific exploration. Well, most of it anyway." Abby unfolded her fortune. "Expect the unexpected."

"What?" Erin had just restarted the microwave.

"That's the fortune I got. Expect the unexpected."

Erin rolled her eyes. "How profound. Dealing with the unexpected is pretty much all we do around here."

"It beats brown-nosing for tenure."

Erin had to smile at that. "Yeah, it totally does."

The front door banged open with enough force to topple the plush penguin off the TV. Holtzmann was hauling in some sort of apparatus with a hand truck. "Ahoy, me hearties!"

"Ahoy!" Abby responded. "How's the plunder?"

"Arrrrr, this be a perfectly good arrrrrrgon laser." She twirled the hand truck around and dropped the accent as she shut the door. "Just has a busted power supply, no problem."

Erin came back in from the kitchen. "Hey Holtz. We saved you some Kung Pao in the fridge."

Abby was cleaning off her place at the table. "Need some help getting that up to the second floor?"

"Nah, I'll do it later." She looked up at the TV as the Jeopardy theme began to play. "Ooh! Spanish Inquisition!"

Abby followed her gaze. "Where'd the penguin go?"

Erin looked up and yelped. "It's gone!"

Holtzmann merely raised an elegant eyebrow. "Entertaining Antarctic visitors?"

"No, there was a... Oh, it fell on the floor." Erin pointed.

Holtz beamed. "Ah, I forgot I left Bruce in here."

"So it is yours." Nothing Holtzmann did really surprised Erin any more, but she had to ask. "Why is it named Bruce?"

Holtzmann adopted a ridiculous Aussie accent as she picked up the toy. "I name _all_ my stuffed animals Bruce. Easier to remember."

"Even the girls?"

Holtzmann mock-whispered, " _They're all girls._ " She cackled her way to the kitchen.

Abby chuckled at the stunned look on Erin's face. "You asked for that."


End file.
